[20] Beginning at WrestleMania 32, a match between Big Show and NBA star Shaquille O'Neal had been teased from various media outlets, including WWE.

[31] According to wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer in January 2017, a WrestleMania 33 match between The Undertaker and John Cena was scrapped as Vince McMahon had "a different vision for the show and [was] thinking [about the] longterm picture not short-term".

[35][36] Reigns was even voted as 2016's "Most Hated Wrestler of the Year" by Pro Wrestling Illustrated readers, a first for a heroic character since the award was devised in 1972.

[39] In March 2017 before WrestleMania 33, wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer reported that WWE's long term plans ("which obviously could change") leading to WrestleMania 34 was to "once again build for a year and have the big coronation" for Reigns, who would still be a heroic character "between now and then" and beat Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship "to fully replace John Cena as the lead babyface of the company",[40] while the "idea" for Lesnar's role "for years now" was "to become a monster, be unbeatable, run through everybody, and then lose to Roman Reigns".

[52] SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan then scheduled a battle royal to determine Wyatt's WrestleMania challenger;[53] it ended in a draw when both AJ Styles and Luke Harper hit the ground simultaneously.

[63] In 2014, The Shield (Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns) were involved in a rivalry with Evolution (Triple H, Randy Orton, and Batista).

[52] After Randy Orton relinquished his championship opportunity, Styles entered into a number one contender's battle royal, which ended in a draw between him and Luke Harper.

[55] During the following weeks, Miz and Maryse made fun of Cena and Nikki's reality show Total Bellas by impersonating them in "unaired footage".

[63] On the Royal Rumble Kickoff pre-show, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson defeated Cesaro and Sheamus to win the Raw Tag Team Championship.

[60] On the February 20 episode of Raw, Amore and Cass defeated Cesaro and Sheamus to receive a tag title match at Fastlane,[87] where Gallows and Anderson retained.

Later on, Raw General Manager Mick Foley scheduled Cesaro and Sheamus to face Amore and Cass on the next episode, with the winners going on to challenge Gallows and Anderson for the titles at WrestleMania 33.

[88] At Elimination Chamber, Naomi defeated Alexa Bliss to win the SmackDown Women's Championship,[51] but a legit injury forced her to relinquish the title.

[54] On the March 7 episode of SmackDown, Becky, Natalya, and even Bliss' ally Mickie James all demanded to challenge for the championship at WrestleMania 33.

[47] On the March 14 episode of 205 Live, Aries won a fatal five-way elimination match to face Neville for the title on the WrestleMania 33 Kickoff pre-show.

[20] Next, 33 wrestlers competed in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, including previously unannounced participants Kalisto, Sin Cara, Luke Harper, Titus O'Neil, The Vaudevillains (Simon Gotch and Aiden English) and The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor).

[20] The actual pay-per-view opened with the hosts, The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods), who were dressed as characters inspired by Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood, a sponsor of the event.

[92] After that, Bayley defended the Raw Women's Championship against Charlotte Flair, Nia Jax and Sasha Banks in a fatal four-way elimination match.

[92] Later, John Cena and Nikki Bella faced The Miz and Maryse in a mixed tag team match with Al Roker serving as the special guest ring announcer.

[92] In the penultimate match, Alexa Bliss defended the SmackDown Women's Championship against Becky Lynch, Naomi, Mickie James, Natalya, and Carmella in a six-pack challenge.

Although "Shawn Michaels' sympathy and expressiveness" made Ric Flair's retirement at WrestleMania "moving and memorable", Geradi chided Reigns for having "barely mustered an ounce of anything other than disbelief and exasperation" as it "was business as usual for The Big Dog".

[2] Jack de Menezes of The Independent wrote that WrestleMania 33 was "an emotional night for fans", especially due to the "brutal ending" of the Undertaker's career.

Paez-Pumar called for "fresh blood or new ideas" in both women's divisions and for Triple H to retire given that he "has not put on a good Mania match" since 2005 or 2006 once WrestleMania XXX was discounted.

For the positives, Goldberg–Lesnar was a "revitalizing adrenaline shot to the spine", Cena's proposal was "magic in a way that no other entertainment can match", The New Day "were excellent hosts; funny when called upon and out of the way when not", while "a stale-ass tag team division just became the most must-see part of Raw" due to the return of the Hardys.

[104] Chris Jericho admitted in 2021 during his appearance on The Broken Skull Sessions that the placement of his match with Kevin Owens was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back with WWE, making him seek work elsewhere.

[105] The original plan for WrestleMania was for Jericho to win the Universal Championship from Owens in the main event, but then Vince McMahon changed his mind.

To have it shunted to the second match of the show meant to Jericho that he was always going to be a "mid-card guy" in WWE and he felt he still had main event potential, so he decided to look for work elsewhere.

"[107] A lot of the crowd hostility arose from the speculation that WrestleMania 33 was The Undertaker's last match, as well as the long running fan opposition to Reigns.

[107][110] The New Day issued an open challenge, which was answered by NXT's The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) in their main roster debut.

[115] The following week, Styles was confirmed to stay on SmackDown and he defeated Baron Corbin and Sami Zayn, who had moved over from Raw, to become the number one contender for the United States Championship at Backlash.

[116] In the cruiserweight division on the post-WrestleMania 205 Live, Austin Aries earned another title shot by winning a fatal four-way match, and it was scheduled for Payback.